Green I.T How to Cut Your Power Bill

A lot of people today face the ever increasing power bill cost. Computers tend to add a considerable amount to the bill. But recently, computer hardware manufactures are coming around to the fact that more and more people are becoming environmental conscious. So this is a win/win situation for the end user; the power bill is reduced and in turn, less pollution is made for the environment.
If you’re building a new PC and want to reduce your power bill, consider the following points:

• Buy a power supply unit that is 80 plus certified. This means maximum efficiency is obtained when your pc is running with minimum power wastage. PSU manufacture Seasonic produces such excellent power supplies.
• Consider purchasing a case that has excellent natural airflow. The more freely air can be moved, the less need for more case fans. Antec have advanced chassis that are aimed for low airflow situations.
• Think about buying an energy efficient motherboard. Gigabyte have a lot to offer with their motherboards consisting of dynamic energy saving technologies, your PC will run much cooler and be more reliable.
• The processor you purchase will make a big difference on power usage. Both Intel and AMD have technologies to keep power down to a minimum but Intel has a better performance to price ratio and when you start moving up the line, AMD processors currently run hotter than Intel. You should also decide whether to buy either a dual core or a quad core. 
• Consider buy a Western Digital hard disk, as Western Digital has produced a “Green Drive” which is a technology that reduces hard disk power consumption.

If you’re not planning on building a PC anytime soon and would like to reduce power consumption, try these ideas:

• If you’re running an AMD processor, enable Cool “n” Quiet in the BIOS as this will throttle the CPU.
• If you’re running an Intel processor, enable Intel SpeedStep Technology in the BIOS as this will throttle the CPU.
• Lower your monitor’s brightness setting.
• Shut off your monitor in between breaks.
• Don’t leave your computer on overnight.

By following the above points, you will see a reduction in power usage from your PC. What this means is the air will be cleaner and you’ll save money from your power bill. Nice.

Guitar Hero World Tour Drums On PC No Go

Update: Success! It’s now possible to attach your Guitar Hero World Tour Drums to your PC! Check out the Video Tutorial: Guitar Hero World Tour Drums on PC

I’m sure you’ve be hanging out for the answer about using Guitar Hero World Tour drums on your PC. After testing out the MIDI cable and tuning my drums, I wanted to see if I could use the drums as a midi controller. However this is not the case. The drum kit only has a MIDI IN socket, which means MIDI data can only be received by the drum kit. Not all hope is lost yet. My next plan of attack is to use a an XBOX 360 wireless receiver on the PC. This would be almost guaranteed to work, but I’m not sure if the velocity sensitive data will get transferred. Wait and see I guess. More PC Tips and tutorials will follow shortly :) .

Make Free Phone Calls Online

Wouldn't it be great if you could make free phone calls? By now, I’m sure you've heard of an application called Skype. If you haven’t, it’s all the rage at the moment. Skype is a free VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) program that allows you to make free phone call to other skype users for free. The only cost is your internet connection. This is excellent for making international phone calls because on a standard telephone line company, rates are expensive.

Another great feature Skype offers is the ability to make video calls which is an attractive feature. So you’re probably wondering why everyone hasn't made the switch to skype and ditched their phone company. This is where Skypes’ freebie run comes to a halt. To make phone calls to landlines or mobiles, a cost is incurred from transferring the VOIP data to a standard phoneline gateway. While rates are reasonable, its nothing to brag about. But if your buddies have skype on thier computer, you can still benefit. If you’ve built an efficient PC, you could let it run all day to make and receive phone calls.

That pretty much somes up Skype. There are other programs out there, but Skype is the best of them. You can download it from here: http://www.skype.com/download/

Watch New Tv Shows For Free Online

Most of us watch new TV shows once they are broadcasted on a TV station. But did you know that you can watch new released TV shows online for free? That means you can watch TV shows whenever you like and won’t miss an episode. But how can it be free? The website is supported by minimal ads, which pay’s for the company whom created the show and the hosting server bandwidth costs. However, most of these websites are for US residents only, leaving the rest of us from around the globe without access. Fortunately, there is an easy way to bypass this. Using a VPN tunnel, such as HotSpot’s Shield, will hide your actual location, thus leading the website which hosts the TV show to believe you are from the US. If you already live in the US, go straight to step 3. Here is how to do it:

1.    Download a copy of HotSpot Shield from here and install.
2.    In your internet browser, a HotSpot Shield Toolbar will have been installed. Make sure it is turned on.
3.    Go to http://www.hulu.com and start watching your favorite TV shows.

Now you can enjoy all your favorite TV shows online for free without end until you have had enough. Well, at least pretty close to that. Because the VPN tunneling service is free, you are allocated 3GB a month, which should be plenty unless you’re watching a great deal of TV shows. To make it an even better experience, why not ring up your buddies and let them know how awesome the TV show was by making a free phone call online. No doubt they will be impressed to hear you watched it online for free!

Play Classic Sierra Games Online!

Remember good old Police Quest or Space Quest? Well, now you can play those classics online for free AND with added bonus of multiplayer support! Head over to Sarien.Net to view the complete list of games, as more and more games are being added. By the word multiplayer support, I mean you can chat to people who are in the same area as you, so not co-op support. Who's knows, maybe in the future . Anyway, have fun playing some games.

Hook Up Xbox 360 on Wireless via PC

I don’t know about you, but I’d save $100 rather than spending it on an official Xbox 360 wireless G adapter. I also know it’s possible to buy a Linksys WRT54GS and use it as a bridge, but your still spending money. If you have a computer that already has a wireless connection and that is close by your Xbox 360, you’re in luck. Using a Ethernet cable, you can attach your Xbox 360 to your computer, then share the internet connection via the wireless. Interested? Here’s how to go about it:

• Attach a Cat5E Ethernet cable to your PC to the Xbox 360. Turn on your Xbox 360. On the PC, enable the Wired LAN port. You should get a connection however windows will display a limited connection notification, which you don’t need to worry about now.
• On the Wireless Connection icon in Network Connections, Right-click and select properties >Advanced tab> select a tick in “Allow other network users to connect through this computers Internet Connection”> Select from the combo box the Wired Lan Connection, in my case “Local Area Connection”. Click OK. See screenshot for details. 
• Back to your Xbox 360, Test Xbox Live in the networking settings options. You should now have successfully attached your Xbox 360 to the internet.

I haven’t tested any FPS (or any games) online over this connection as I don’t have a Gold Membership. Also, you will need to have your computer switched on to be able to use Xbox 360 online because the PC is the gateway. Still, not bad for free wireless for your Xbox 360!

Guitar Hero World Tour Drums On PC

I mentioned a while ago that I would create a how to video on using your Guitar Hero World Tour Drum kit on your PC. Thanks to Magnus’ PS360MIDI Drummer software, the ability to use the GH:WT drum kit on PC became possible. To think that you could turn a gaming controller into a high quality midi controller is amazing. Something like a Yamaha DTXpress costs $800 AU + .

I realize you can’t compare the GT:WT drum kit to fully decked electronic drum kit, but for less than $150 , the Guitar Hero World Tour Drum Kit does a pretty awesome job. Watch the videos below on how to setup your Guitar Hero World Tour Drum Kit on PC.

What you need:
•Guitar Hero: World Tour Drum Kit (Must be either Xbox 360 or PS3 version)
•Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver For Windows (Xbox 360 version only)
• PS360MIDI Drummer
•LoopBe1
•ASIO4ALL
•FL Studio
•Addictive Drums

If you have a rock band 2 drum kit and can provide some technical data for Magnus so that he can add rock band 2 support , you can contact Magnus at magnus.ellinge[at]gmail.com

If you get a bit more serious into drum playing and/or recording, consider purchasing the full version of Addictive Drums which will give you access to the full, multiple drum kits, which by the way, sound excellent. If you don’t have a digital audio workstation, FL studio is something worth buying; I use it and can not fault it.

Have fun drum playing and if you get any videos up of your drum playing on your GT:WT drum kit, post them in the comment section!